The scripture reading comes from Luke 19, starting at verse 1.
Please follow along on the screen or in your Bible.
He entered Jericho and was passing through.
And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.
He was a chief tax collector and was rich.
And he was not seeking to see who Jesus was,
but on account of the crowd he could not because he was small in stature.
So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him,
for he was about to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him,
Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.
So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.
And when they saw it, they all grumbled.
He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.
And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord,
Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.
And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
And Jesus said to him,
Today salvation has come to this house,
since he also is a son of Abraham.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Amen.
Great. I'd love to introduce our speaker to us this morning.
This morning we are going to be listening to Max Jaganathan,
who is originally from Sri Lanka, but moved to Australia at a young age.
And having grown up in Australia, he then studied law and politics,
both at the National University of Australia as well as University in Oxford.
He has also worked advising political leaders in Australia,
and he now works for RZIM as a speaker and also regional director
for the Asia-Pacific branch of RZIM.
Max is a friend of Watermark.
He has spoken here before.
He leads a fantastic team of speakers and apologists,
and it really is a great privilege to have him speaking to us today
on the subject of,
Why do I need God if I'm happy already?
Let's welcome Max Jaganathan to us this morning.
Good morning, Watermark community.
It's such a blessing to be able to share this message with you.
I'm so sorry that I'm not able to be there in person.
It's been a couple of years, I think, since I've been with you physically,
but I remember that time fondly,
and I'm in touch with many from your community pretty regularly.
And so we've been praying for you.
We at RZIM hope things are going well there
as you in Hong Kong come out of the pandemic
and as the Lord calls and leads you
as the Watermark family and community
to great new depths as we approach this Christmas season
and into the new year ahead as well.
I want to talk to you about a topic that I think is
as important and relevant as it ever has been
as we continue to battle our way through a post-truth culture,
a post-truth world,
and trying to make sense of what that actually means,
and particularly what that means for the big questions in life.
And when we think about how much hostility there is,
how much uncertainty there is,
how much volatility there is,
how much anxiety there is out there in the world
for so many different reasons,
this question often comes up,
why bother with God if I'm happy?
Now, it's an interesting question because,
as I said, with so much negativity around,
it seems that a lot of people aren't that happy.
But a lot of people still remain focused and committed
to this idea that if they can find a way to find happiness
and achieve happiness for themselves,
and they don't need anything else,
we've built for ourselves individual self-focus models
and paradigms of fulfillment.
And if we can make things work relatively well most of the time,
according to those paradigms of fulfillment,
then we think that we don't need anything else.
And it all stems from this transactional mindset
that we seem to have lulled ourselves into.
And some of that can be understood through simply
the global systems that we've created for ourselves,
whether it's our economic and financial systems,
whether it's our geopolitical and geographic systems
of people movement.
It's very transactional.
You give and you get.
It's all driven by supply and demand.
And so when we go to the shops and we buy something,
we give and we receive.
And so it's easy to think that what we are seeking to achieve
is this transacted happiness,
where you just do certain things that make you happy.
And the better you do them, the more happy you become.
And once you have that level of happiness,
that's all you really need.
You don't need to look any further than that.
But the problem is we continue to struggle,
both inside our own hearts and in the world around us that we see.
It seems like happiness isn't quite cutting it.
And so I want to talk about three things today.
Three things.
Three answers to the question,
why bother with God if I'm happy?
And the three things are these.
Because truth is indispensable.
Because suffering is unavoidable.
And because happiness is not enough.
Because truth is indispensable,
suffering is unavoidable,
and ultimately happiness is not enough.
And we see some of these themes come through
in the biblical story of Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector,
this guy who is of enormous economic and financial power and influence,
but is socially excluded,
is socially and culturally ostracized from his very own community.
And he's hated amongst his people.
And yet he has built for himself, as we all do,
a paradigm of fulfillment through wealth,
through financial wealth.
Now, we don't all do it through financial wealth,
but obviously financial affluence is a big and very common model
of prosperity and achievement and success today.
But we don't always do it in the way Zacchaeus did.
But we all have our paradigms of fulfillment.
Zacchaeus has happened to be financial affluence,
and perhaps even political influence,
given how senior he was.
We know he was a chief tax collector.
But in the midst of that,
we still see that he found it in himself that morning
to go and see Jesus,
to go and get a look at this Jesus.
Now, clearly, something else was needed.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered.
If he was really happy,
why bother going to see who this Jesus is?
Even if you weren't entirely sure who he was
or whether this whole thing was a hoax,
why would you bother going to see Jesus?
So why bother with God if you're happy?
Because truth is indispensable,
suffering is unavoidable,
and happiness is not enough.
Let's have a look at this
with a little bit of regard to Zacchaeus' story,
but more importantly,
with a stronger focus on your and my heart individually.
And it doesn't really matter where you are,
on that walk with God,
on your wrestle with God,
on your struggle with God,
or perhaps even in your rejection of God.
I hope this is relevant for you.
There's a sociologist called George Ritzer.
There was a sociologist, an American sociologist.
And he talked about the cultural and economic phenomenon
called McDonaldization.
And McDonaldization,
he referred to in the context of four things.
Efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control.
And of course, he was referring to the fast food chain.
But what he was also talking about
was this cultural and psychological reality
that more and more,
people simply just want what they want when they want it.
And then they get on with their lives.
That's it.
It's all about material needs and material wants.
So McDonaldization very much fits in some ways
with Zacchaeus' life.
You know, just get wealthy,
get what you need,
get what you want quickly.
That kind of drive-through culture,
that Amazon,
that kind of immediate click,
one-click culture that we have moved into.
And of course,
the industrial and computing revolutions
have really sped this up and helped this out.
And if anything,
the pandemic has actually accelerated this
because we are ordering more and more and more things
from food to groceries to electronics to clothing
to music to multimedia entertainment,
whether it's Netflix or Amazon Prime,
whatever it is,
we're all just ordering it
and having it delivered literally to our doorsteps
or to our screens,
to our handheld devices.
So McDonaldization,
which Ritzer actually came up with,
I think, in the 50s or 60s,
has been accelerated through the last,
not just 10 to 15 years,
but particularly you can make the case disproportionately
in the last 12 to 24 months as well.
So why then would we bother?
If we can have the things that we want,
if materially at least,
even in the context of entertainment,
in the context of short-term pleasure and desire,
if we can have everything we want,
why would we bother with God?
Well, the first point I want to make
is that truth is indispensable.
Truth is indispensable.
And we see this in Zacchaeus' response
to the news that Jesus is coming to town.
He's wealthy.
He's stinking rich, in fact.
And he's full of economic and cultural power.
He's in with the Roman authorities.
And yet he still knows that something is not quite right.
And so he gets up and he comes.
He comes and he climbs the sycamore tree
just to get a glimpse of this Jesus.
He's looking for something.
And I want to suggest to you
that he's looking what we are all looking for.
On some level,
one of the things that Zacchaeus is looking for that day
and that we are all looking for is truth.
Absolute objective truth.
Because the post-truth culture
will tell you that truth doesn't really matter.
That what matters more are your feelings.
Your feelings are the most important thing.
And yet we know that the denial or rejection of truth
fails on two very important fronts.
It fails logically
because you simply can't deny the existence of absolute truth.
without affirming it.
And it also fails experientially
as we see some from Zacchaeus
and from our own hearts too.
Because every human heart longs for truth.
Longs for coherence.
Longs for a better understanding of reality.
Right?
So what about the logical flaw?
Let me start with that.
Denying truth fails logically.
We know this
because if anyone says to you
truth does not exist,
all you have to say to them
is to say,
was that statement true?
Was that statement that you just said,
was that true?
Now, you've asked them
a propositional binary question.
They have to either say yes or no.
They say,
there's no such thing as truth.
You respond,
was that true?
If they say yes,
then they are making
an objective truth claim,
an absolute truth claim,
and thereby,
they are denying and detracting
from the substance
of what they're trying to say.
So they're admitting
that the substance of their claim is false
because they're admitting
that they're trying to make a truth statement.
If they say no,
it's not true,
then once again,
they're admitting
that the substance of their statement
is false.
So whichever way you answer that question,
we see that truth exists.
We see that that statement,
truth does not exist,
implodes on itself.
It implodes before it even gets off the runway.
It doesn't even take off.
And we're not using Christian principles
or any kind of religious principles
or metaphysical assumptions here.
These are just very simple,
widely accepted principles of logic.
Aristotle called it
the law of non-contradiction.
You can't try and deny
the existence of absolute truth
because you have to make
an absolute truth claim
in order to do that.
So we know logically and philosophically,
before we even open the Bible,
that absolute truth exists.
Absolute truth does exist.
And we can know it
because any denial of those two things
implodes on itself logically.
And when we look at the Christian message,
we see something incredible.
We see that the means to truth
is exactly what we would expect
the means to truth to be
if we were following the principles of logic.
And Plato is helpful here,
the ancient Greek philosopher.
He said,
all you have to do to find truth
is follow the evidence to where it leads.
Just follow the evidence to where it leads.
Follow the evidence to where it leads.
And when we look in the Bible,
what we see again and again and again
is an invitation to question,
is a presentation of evidence,
propositional evidence,
historical evidence,
philosophical evidence.
Ultimately,
the person of Jesus Christ
who turns up
and doesn't say simply,
this is the truth,
this is the truth.
He does make a number of truth claims
and backs them up in many ways,
but ultimately he points to himself
and he says,
I am the truth.
So we know that to find truth,
we have to follow the evidence
to where it leads.
And we know that in this Christian message,
we are presented with propositional evidence.
And both inside and outside the Bible now,
if we look,
there is evidence,
mountains and mountains of evidence.
If we are willing to engage with it
and to follow it to where it leads.
And Zacchaeus,
interestingly that morning,
he did exactly that.
He was looking for something beyond his life.
He was looking for truth.
He knew that there was something
about the way he was living
that wasn't quite in keeping
with the nature of reality itself.
And so he followed the evidence
and finally he followed it to Jesus
and then followed Jesus.
So any denial of truth
proves itself to be contradictory
and falsifies itself
in the process of trying to deny truth.
We know that truth is indispensable.
But secondly,
and perhaps even more powerfully,
even if you put that logical
and philosophical stuff aside,
the truth is just a very natural yearning
of every human heart.
We're all looking for truth.
Many of you will be familiar
with the old Jim Carrey movie,
The Truman Show,
where Truman Burbank is living
what seems to be an idyllic kind of life.
You know,
in a town that's clean,
there's no crime,
he has a job,
he has friends.
But of course,
the premise of the entire movie
is that it's all a lie.
Everyone in his life
and in that town is an actor,
except him.
He was taken as a little baby,
adopted by a multi-billion dollar
media corporation,
and his entire life
was turned into a reality TV show,
streamed live over cable,
24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
And Truman doesn't know this.
And the whole movie
is about him discovering by chance,
through a series of strange occurrences
in his life,
that his life is in fact a lie.
And then trying to escape.
And the whole movie,
we as the audience,
doesn't matter what you believe
or who you are,
you are cheering for Truman.
We are rooting for him
to break out of this lie.
Because no one wants to live a lie.
No one wants to live a life
based on betrayal,
or based on deception,
or based on incoherence.
The truth is indispensable,
yes,
because it's logically
and philosophically indispensable,
but perhaps more powerfully,
because it's experientially
and existentially indispensable.
None of us want to live a lie.
None of us want to be lied to.
None of us who are in relationships
want to be cheated on.
None of us who are in friendships
want to be betrayed.
None of us want to be deceived.
We all know that there's something
intrinsically wrong with that.
And you don't need to be a Christian
to sense that
and to be honest about that feeling.
So why bother with God
if we're happy?
Number one,
because truth is indispensable.
And if you follow the evidence
to where it leads,
as Zacchaeus found,
as I have found,
as many, many of you have found,
it will lead you
to the person of Jesus Christ.
But you've got to follow it
like Plato said.
You've got to follow it
to where it leads.
We can't simply follow the evidence
while it's comfortable,
while it's convenient,
while we agree
with where it's leading us.
No.
We have to follow it
all the way to where it leads
and it will lead you
to the person of Jesus Christ.
Truth is indispensable.
Secondly then,
suffering is unavoidable.
There's a famous novel
called Gilead
by a great writer
called Marilynne Robinson.
She won a Pulitzer Prize
for this novel.
And in that novel,
she makes two very powerful statements.
She says,
and it's a fictional book,
of course,
but she says,
there are two realities
that plague all of creation.
My insufficiency to the world
and the world's insufficiency to me.
There's something very insightful
about that.
She's basically just saying,
it doesn't matter how hard I work,
how well I do,
how happy I think I am.
There's always something about me
deep down that doesn't feel quite right.
And there's always something
at the same time
about the world out there
that doesn't seem quite right.
It doesn't matter what we do,
I know the reality is
that I'm imperfect
and the world is imperfect.
And because of those two realities,
there is always going to be
suffering in the world.
Suffering is probably
the most ubiquitous
human condition there is.
We all deal with it.
It doesn't matter who you are
or what you believe
or what you don't believe.
Everyone suffers
and everyone at any given moment,
even right now,
I'm sure you're all dealing
with elements of suffering
in your life
or at the very least,
you're dealing with the suffering
of people very close to you
who are going through
even more visceral suffering
at the moment.
We all suffer.
And so,
in response to the question,
why bother with God
if we're happy,
we still have to have
a response to suffering.
And any worldview
that desires to be taken seriously
has to have some kind of a response
to the problem
and the reality
of human suffering.
And to their credit,
most worldviews out there
have some kind of a response.
And I'm not going to go
into them specifically.
I'm not going to name them.
But the broad categories
of response
are very clear.
There is one category
of worldview
that says,
look,
there is a God out there
and he recognizes
that there is suffering,
but it's just his will.
You just have to shut up
and deal with it.
He has no moral connection
or moral obligation
to you or your suffering.
He doesn't need
to explain himself.
You don't even have the right
to ask him about your suffering.
Just shut up and deal with it.
It's his will.
There's another category
of worldview
that says that suffering
is all the direct fault
of the sufferer.
So it's because of something
you have done.
All suffering is caused
by the individuals
who are experiencing
that suffering.
They did something
either in this life
or perhaps in a previous life
and that's why
they're suffering.
There's another category
of worldview
that says,
and this is a curious one,
that all suffering
is an illusion.
It's only because
of your state of mind
that you are suffering.
And to this worldview,
the response to suffering
is to meditate ourselves
out of that desire
so that we can then
be free of all desire
and therefore free
of all suffering.
So the reason you struggle
when you lose a family member
is because you love them,
you desired them,
you were attached to them.
So if you meditate yourself
out of that desire
when you lose a family member
or lose a job
or lose a friendship,
then you won't suffer
because you don't care.
And ultimately,
this worldview culminates
in the complete extinguishing
of the self.
You meditate yourself
completely out of all desire,
out of all consciousness.
Then there's a fourth category
of worldviews
which are the atheistic worldviews.
And if they are being honest
with you,
honest with us,
their response to suffering
is that suffering
is meaningless.
Because if the atheist
is being honest,
then everything is meaningless
because,
as Richard Dawkins would say,
we are simply time
plus matter plus chance.
And to paraphrase him directly,
in that kind of a world,
some people are going to get rich,
some people are going to suffer,
some people are going to get raped,
some people are going to get killed,
some people are going to get lucky,
and there just isn't any reason
or meaning to any of it.
Now,
when you look at these
four categories of worldview,
I don't know about you,
but I find them both
intellectually
and more importantly,
experientially,
not all that compelling.
Because in the midst
of suffering,
there is something
we are all looking for,
no matter what we believe.
We are looking for comfort
and strength
in the suffering,
and we're also looking
for a narrative
of redemption
and restoration
beyond the suffering.
So comfort and strength
in the suffering,
and the hope
of something better
beyond the suffering.
And once again,
when we look
to the Christian message,
we see an incredible
response to suffering,
not just an acknowledgement
of it,
not just a God
who knows it's happening,
but a God
who doesn't say
it doesn't mean anything,
he doesn't say
just shut up
and take it,
he doesn't say,
he doesn't throw down
a bunch of philosophies
or theories
to meditate around it,
he literally steps down
into the suffering
as a person
and suffers for us.
And not only that,
takes all of the suffering
of humankind
and brokenness
and anxiety
and imperfections
and struggles
and guilt
and shame,
takes it all
onto himself
and dies
on a cross
for us.
This is a God
who came into the world
to step into our suffering.
That was the primary reason
for which he came
into the world.
A God who suffered
for us
and now
a God who is willing
to suffer
with us.
If we are willing
to take his hand,
Jesus says,
take my hand
and we will conquer
through the suffering.
We will conquer
through the suffering.
Now we see
in the life of Zacchaeus,
there must have been suffering.
He was socially,
as I've said,
socially ostracized.
He was psychologically
struggling.
He was experiencing
social exclusion.
He might have been
suffering some mental
ill health
as a result of this.
We know that people
are seeking acceptance.
People are seeking acceptance
and freedom
from guilt and shame
and Zacchaeus had
guilt and shame
in mountains.
Tax collectors
at that time
were probably
the most guilted,
shamed and hated
members of the Jewish community
during the Roman rule.
And so Zacchaeus' suffering,
even amidst
all of his material affluence,
would have been significant.
And he was reaching out
for rescue
in the suffering.
Not for theories
on how to get around it,
not for ways
of how to meditate himself
to detach from it.
He wanted rescue
from it.
And he ran
to find Jesus
as a means of rescue.
And the cross
of Jesus Christ,
which followed
not far after
the story of Zacchaeus,
where Jesus goes
to a cross,
dies for our suffering,
our sins,
our brokenness,
our struggles,
then defeats all of that
by rising from the dead,
affirming and proving
who he is.
Again, getting back
to the evidence,
proving who he is.
Now reaches out,
not just to Zacchaeus,
but to all of us
as a means of rescue
from our suffering
through him
and with him.
And he offers us
the two things
we're all looking for,
comfort, strength
within the suffering
and an eternal hope,
an eternal future
where there'll be
no more suffering
at all.
So truth is indispensable,
suffering is unavoidable,
thirdly and finally,
happiness is not enough.
And this is an important one
because you could make the case
that this is the only answer
that matters.
I think the indispensability
of truth
and the ubiquitousness
of suffering
are deeply relevant.
But the fact that happiness
is not enough
is something
that resonates
with all of us
if we are honest
with ourselves.
And once again,
we see this playing out
in the life of Zacchaeus,
in what actually got him
out of bed
that morning
to go and investigate
this Jesus.
Because on any measure,
the paradigms of fulfillment
that we build now
of wealth
and convenience
and the capacity
to attain
a high quality
of life,
Zacchaeus had all of those things
in many, many ways.
Yes,
he had suffering,
but he also
could have made the case
that if wealth
was all he was looking for,
then he was happy.
But again and again,
we see people
who have followed
and have fulfilled
the paradigms of happiness
that we have built,
whether it's through celebrity,
through professional success,
through sex,
through drugs,
through alcohol,
through Facebook friends,
through Instagram followers,
through financial security,
through status and reputation,
through personal
and social popularity,
whatever it might be,
people get to the top
and then they realize
that it's not enough.
Again,
not to double down
on Jim Carrey
after mentioning
The Truman Show,
but in an interview,
I think way back
in the 90s,
there was a year
where Jim Carrey
was the highest grossing
actor in Hollywood
and he was asked
in an interview,
at the end of the interview,
they said,
do you have a message
for your young fans,
for maybe that actor
who's just starting out,
do you have any words
of wisdom for them
from your experience
of climbing to the top?
Because clearly,
you're at the top
of your profession.
And Jim Carrey paused
and he looked into the camera
and he said,
I wish that all aspiring actors
could see what I see now,
that when you get to the top,
there is nothing here.
That when you get to the top,
there is nothing here.
Happiness is quite simply
not enough.
And when we look
at the Christian message,
once again,
we see why
and we see how
we can find redemption
from this problem.
And it's because of this.
If you look
at secular dictionaries,
at the definition of happiness,
it talks about
a sensory experience,
a feeling.
Happiness is a feeling
that is necessarily temporary
because it's based on
temporary circumstances.
It's based on
the five senses
that we've got
and our external environment
and how our senses
respond to that.
And that could be,
you know,
at a party
or in response to alcohol
or in response to
physical touch
or in response to
a great academic
or financial achievement
or a wedding
or the birth of a child.
It's all about
these events,
these necessarily
temporary events
that we feel something.
Then if you look
at the definition of joy,
the secular definition
of joy,
and what you see
at best
is that joy
is considered
by the world out there
simply to be
a whole lot of happiness.
So the definition
of happiness points to joy
and the definition
of joy points to happiness.
And so most people think
that joy
is just a whole lot
of happiness.
Just a whole lot
of happiness.
A quantitatively different
amount of happiness.
But in the Christian message,
joy and happiness
are not just
quantitatively different.
They are qualitatively different.
Because happiness
is based on
temporary circumstances,
temporary experiences,
a temporary state of affairs.
Whereas joy is based
on eternal circumstances.
It's based on
an up-close
and personal relationship
with God himself
through the person of Jesus.
And that is unchanging.
That is where
followers of Jesus
draw their joy.
It's an outpouring.
And at that point,
joy is something
that you are,
not something
that you feel.
It is permanent,
not temporary.
It is eternal,
not temporal.
And it is something
that transcends
and is immune
to the ups and downs
of the world,
even the suffering
in the world.
So Christians
and others
might feel happiness,
but when you're
a follower of Jesus,
when you're
a follower of Jesus,
you are joy.
And in the midst
of that joy,
your happiness levels
will continue
to go up and down.
Because as Marilyn
Robinson said,
the world is broken
and we are broken.
But there is an underlying
sense of being
and who we are
where we are consistently
and constantly rejoicing
in the reality
of the wonder
that we are in
right relationship
with our Creator.
We know
where we are going.
We have access
to this supernatural love,
to this supernatural rescue
from our suffering
through the person
who is truth itself,
Jesus Christ.
C.S. Lewis put it
really well
as he so often does.
He says,
and I'm paraphrasing him,
he says,
we are too often
and so often
just preoccupied
with making mud pies
in the backyard
that we don't consider
for a moment
the possibility
of a holiday
at the seaside.
And it doesn't mean
that we're not happy
in the moment.
It doesn't mean
that the mud pies
aren't fun.
It doesn't mean
that we can't get
really good
at making mud pies.
But the reality is
that if we are closed off,
if we throw God
out of the picture,
all we are left with
are the paradigms
of happiness
and the systems
of fulfillment
that we build
for ourselves.
And they might work
really well,
but what if there
is something better?
What if there is more?
And when we think
about that possibility,
that God might have
something better for us
than anything we can
put together
in our own strength,
then the answer
to the question
becomes very,
very simple.
Why bother with God
if I'm happy?
Well, quite possibly
because we have no idea
of the kind of happiness
and joy that God
has for us.
Well and truly
above and beyond
even our wildest dreams,
hopes,
and imagination.
Truth is indispensable,
suffering is unavoidable,
and happiness is not enough.
And when we are walking
with the person
of Jesus Christ,
we are backed up
in our beliefs
and our faith
by the propositional evidence,
which is made real
by the personal evidence
of a person
who claims to be
and is the truth,
Jesus himself,
which is then manifested
through relational evidence.
So the indispensability
of truth
is strengthened
and made real
in our lives
three times over.
Through that walk
with Jesus,
we are then restored
through our suffering.
And the Bible says
we conquer
through the suffering.
You don't ignore it,
you don't avoid it,
you don't pretend
it's not real.
Jesus says,
take my hand,
we are going through it.
It's okay,
I've been there before,
I've got this.
And finally,
we get access
to the supernatural joy
that is qualitatively
different to happiness,
not quantitatively different.
And then we are empowered
and strengthened
to go out into the world
and pour out
the love of God
onto the lives
of other people
and point them
to the indispensability
of truth
and point them
to the cross
of Jesus Christ,
which is the greatest response
to suffering
in human history
and point them
to the qualitatively
different transcendent joy
that the message
of Jesus Christ offers us.
Zacchaeus found this
that day.
He found it
because he knew
the truth was indispensable,
suffering was unavoidable
and happiness
was not enough.
And he found
the truth
in a person that day.
He met the truth.
He found restoration
through his suffering
and conquest through it
and a redemptive hope
and a future without it
through relationship
with Jesus.
And then finally
he found that happiness
was simply not enough.
He understood
at the beginning of the day
but even more so
at the end of the day
that for his ultimate
fulfillment and flourishing
he needed something
beyond the temporary happiness
that he could seek
and find himself.
My hope for you today
is that wherever you are
in your walk with God,
in your struggle with God,
or perhaps in your rejection
of God,
that you might continue in
or perhaps commence anew
to search for that truth
that's indispensable
to your heart,
to give your suffering
to this Jesus
who came and conquered
suffering for you
and to seek out that joy
that comes through
all of the yearnings
that we look for
and can ultimately
only be fulfilled
in Jesus Christ.
Forgiveness,
peace,
assurance,
acceptance,
significance
and ultimately joy.
May God bless you.
Thank you for giving me
a hearing this morning.
Take care of yourselves
and I look forward
to seeing you in person
as soon as the Lord wills it.
Cheers.
Great.
Max,
thank you so much
for bringing that word
to us this morning.
Thank you for reminding us
that Jesus Christ
is not only real,
but he's the one
in whom true life
and joy
and purpose
and deep satisfaction
is found.
Friends,
let's respond
to this this morning.
I wonder if some of us here
are followers of Jesus
and yet if we're honest
with ourselves,
we worship Christ
on a Sunday,
but most of our lives
are spent
trying to find meaning
and purpose
and true happiness
outside of Christ
in the things
of our lives.
Maybe we've used God
as a means
to try to find happiness
rather than recognizing
that true joy,
true meaning
and purpose
is found in him.
Maybe some of us
this morning
would not consider ourselves
followers of Jesus
at all.
Maybe we've searched
far and wide
to look for
the meaning
and the purpose
and the deep joy
and satisfaction
that Max has spoken
about this morning.
Maybe you've looked
for it in work
or your career.
Maybe you've looked
for it in your children.
Or maybe you've looked
for it in your parents'
approval.
Maybe in money,
in wealth,
or a romantic relationship
or a partner.
Whether you're a follower
of Jesus this morning
or whether you consider
yourself not spiritual,
whether you're a believer
or you consider yourself
not a believer,
this morning God,
the God who created
the world,
the God who created
you and I
is looking us
in the eye
and he's not only
calling us
to align ourselves
to the truth
of who he is,
he's offering us
an invitation.
He's inviting us
to come and find
hope and joy,
meaning and purpose,
true happiness,
lasting life,
not in the things
of this world
that can so easily
fade and fall away,
but in who he is,
in his everlasting promise
in the person
of Jesus.
I want to give each one
of us a chance
to respond.
And one of the ways
that we respond
is firstly by acknowledging
the things in our lives
that we've looked to
for meaning and purpose,
for joy and satisfaction.
The Bible's got a word
for this.
It's actually the word
repentance.
And when we hear
that word,
it can sound very heavy
and negative,
but actually,
the Bible's invitation
for repentance
is always an invitation
to come and find life,
to find true life.
It's an invitation
to let go of the things
that promise so much
but don't deliver
and to find true life
and joy
in the one
who really does.
I want to ask us
to take a few moments.
Let's take 30 seconds
and just on your own,
think about where is it
that you're looking
for true and lasting joy?
What is the one thing
that you could not
live without?
Let's take a few minutes
and think about that
right now.
If you don't mariage me,
let's take 20 seconds
because you're listening
to this.
Let's take 20 minutes
and see you first
in the 2nd term
to identify you
for true and merkwに
to be able to maintain
your feet
and you want to make
yea
for love and 난
be as good
as possible.
For love and pastor
remember,
and if you're looking
as well asking
to be as the opening
again,
there,
let's try 249 to see
the 프로
andayer,
I hope
and Kane
Will you join me in a moment of prayer?
Let's pray together.
Oh, sovereign God, the one who created everything in existence,
and yet the one who invites us to come and call you Father.
Jesus Christ, the one who walked the dusty roads of this world,
who saw the pain in the eyes and felt the tears of those that are hurting,
those who looked in the eye of those that had looked for meaning and purpose in so many places and felt empty.
Oh, Holy Spirit, the one who is alive and real and at work in our lives now,
we come before you now, and we ask you, God, to come and invade our lives.
We ask you, God, to open the eyes of our hearts to see what it is that we've been looking to for meaning and purpose,
where we've sought for joy and happiness.
And God, come and help us to see that all those things are truly, ultimately, found in you.
They're not found in a concept.
They're not found in a religion.
They're not found in a philosophy or in a teaching.
They're found in a person, the person of Jesus Christ, the living God.
God, we ask you to, more than that, won't you pour faith into our hearts?
Won't you help us to trust you?
Won't you help us, God, to see that the invitation you offer to us and to say yes?
God, we want to say we're sorry for looking in everywhere apart from you,
looking to our jobs and our families, to romance and to our wallets,
for the things that only you can give us, true meaning, true purpose, true satisfaction,
true life and happiness, faith, and everlasting joy.
Jesus, we come before you now and say, have your way in our life.
Come and have your way, we pray.
We pray this in your gracious, your compassionate, your sympathetic,
and yet your sovereign name.
Amen.